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Analysis, Evaluation, Planning, Research

PHILLIP TOLEDANO – FAMILY STUDY

October 16, 2015 Jemma Hosegood Leave a comment

Attempting to learn more about Phillip Toledano online proved difficult, Toledano has little information on him specifically and what I found useful was a quote from his website –

“I was born in 1968 in London, to a French Moroccan mother and an American father.

I have a BA in English literature. My art education came from my father, who was a full time artist.

It would be fair to say that I learned by osmosis.

I consider myself a conceptual artist: Everything starts with an idea, and the idea determines the execution.

Consequently, my work varies in medium, from photography to installation, sculpture and painting. The themes of my work are primarily socio-political, although lately I’ve strayed into the deeply personal.”

When Phil Toledano was six, his sister died. His family never talked of her again. But when his parents died, they left a box of her belongings. He therefore made a photography book called “When i was 6” – he was 6 when she died and he tried to remember memories of her he has and also things he was interested in in that period of his life. When his parents died, Toledano discovered a case in the back of their wardrobe. It was full of Claudia’s belongings, and of pictures they had taken of her.

“When I saw the pictures, she seemed so grown up, and that was so shocking to me,” he says. “She was a real person. I guess it’s easy to think you’ve lost a baby than you’ve lost a person.”

A year elapsed between his discovery of Claudia’s belongings and finding the strength to begin When I Was Six. “It was almost hilariously miserable,” he says. “I’d take a picture, then I’d start crying. I’d go to sleep and then wake up, take some more pictures, and start crying again. It was just so exhausting, on a molecular level.”

Some of the images i find extremely interesting, also the idea that these belongings of a sister toledano has very little rememberance of intrigues me. Finding this box caused him to make a photo book of her belongings, here are some of the images from the book thati find the most interesting.

I love the way these images have been taken and presented aswell. A typical presentation would be just flat on a table and taken from a birds eye view. Toledano changed this and made the images of the objects interesting aswell, by using natural lights to create contrasting shadows and propping the objects up aswell as piling things up to increased perceived quantity but letting the eye only see the most interesting one. However the contrasting and strong natural light with created shadows makes the images look moody and mysterious, this I feel sets a great theme for the book.

Evaluation

Atlantus

October 15, 2015 Jessica Freire Leave a comment

Atlantus is a photography project which Mr Toft and Gareth Syvret have been working on it explores the historical links between Jersey and New Jersey using photographs from the archive as a vital point . The project was inspired by 350^th anniversary of the naming of New Jersey in America after Jersey by Sir George Carteret. This project is very research based in order to find identities, historical and geographic links between the two places for example: the Jersey cow being shipped too New Jersey as a gift. The project includes a wide variety of photographic styles from documentary, portraits, landscapes, interior and set up photographs.

One of my favorite photographs from the project is one of an African American woman standing on Asbury Park beach because of the story behind it which made it more interesting, Mr Toft found a photograph in the archive from years ago of Asbury’s wealthy community on the beach with African American slaves, the wealthy community then left. Today there is a large African American in Asbury the photograph shows the link between this and shows how this community has now evolved.

I liked the layout and the way that Atlantus was displayed as the narrative and flow of the images were quite easy to understand. I think this format is a new and creative way of displaying projects. The newspaper is folded into four this allows the receiver of the project to experiment and makes the project more interactive. Finally, I think newspapers are an easier way of presenting and can be distributed quicker.

Tamika Tolliver, Beach, Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States, 1 August 2014

Jersey Calf, Goodlands, St Ouen, Jersey, Channel Islands, 27 May 2014

timthumb (2) — Steve Lemprière, Semi-retired Fisherman, Grève de Lecq, St Ouen, Jersey, Channel Islands, 27 May 2014

Analysis, Evaluation, Exhibition, Planning

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY – FAMILY – SHOOT IDEA:

October 14, 2015 2566 - Viviana Maia 1 Comment

Evaluation

What is Community?

October 14, 2015 Max Le Feuvre Leave a comment

Like the theme of Family, Community is a very difficult to properly define. When looking at different definitions on the internet and in dictionaries there are various different definitions and interpretations of what a community is. These are some of the definitions I came across in my research

a group of people living in the same place
a group of friends
members of the same sporting/recreational activities
body of nations or states unified by common interests.
denoting a worker or resource designed to serve the people of a particular area

The main idea that I developed from the my research is that community is much more broader than family. Community is often a larger group of people, an the relationship shared within that community tend to be less personal than family.

Community is an important part of a person’s identity. Community can be race related, nationalistic, religious, political, or even just a group of neighbours and people who live in an area, who might not even know each other. Nearly everyone to some degree would consider themselves to be a member of community.

Community Photography

Community is one of the most popular types of topic to study in documentary photography. It has lead to some of the most influential bodies of photographic work in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Here are a list of some photograph who have explored the theme of community within their work.

Martin Parr; Think of England

Alec Soth; Sleeping by the Mississippi

Jonas Bendikson; British Wool

Mikhael Subotsky: Die Vier Hoeke

Yuri Toropstov: Marylin and I

Analysis, Evaluation, Research

SLEEPING BY THE MISSISSIPPI

October 13, 2015 Jemma Hosegood 1 Comment

Alec Soth is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis, who makes “large-scale American projects” featuring the Midwestern United States. The project Iam looking to study is his project ‘sleeping by the Mississippi’. SBTM is a photography book made from Soth travelling down the Mississippi and taking photographs in the areas around the river.

The project contains many fascinating images, all of these images somehow relate to ‘sleeping by the Mississippi’. Some of the images more so than others, the following are some of my favorite images from the project – These images mainly focus around beds and occasionally death, which can be interpenetrated as sleeping beyond life.

My two favorite images are the photographs where you can see bed/mattresses in the water itselfs. This relates extremely closes to the title ‘SLEEPING by the MISSISSIPPI’ as it has bed posts and mattresses which are used for sleeping. Therefore the images show quite clearly a representation of ‘SLEEPING by the Mississippi’. Here are my two favorite images –

Evaluation, Research

TOM POPE EXHIBITION

October 8, 2015 Jemma Hosegood Leave a comment

Meeting tom pope was inspiring, he was extremely creative in everything he did. Through everything he was doing, you could see he was trying to think of new ideas to do. The main piece of Tom’s work that I found interesting was the film. This was presented on a projector down in the ‘dungeon’. Baring in mind the location of the exhibition was in the old police station, so being there was interesting in itself. Tom’s film was about his adventure that he had where he travelled across Jersey pushing a fisherman’s boat that he had bought locally. His Journey started in grey, and finished out at St Ouen’s bay with a beautiful sunset. Tom had a group of constantly changing people who helped him push the boat to the other side of the island. Alongside this group of helpers, Tom organised for some local musicians to come and play along side him as entertainment. He also encouraged the public to come and take part.

Analysis, Evaluation, Planning, Research

David Moore – Family Artist Reference

October 6, 2015 Flora Devenport Leave a comment

From the book ‘Photoworks’, David Moore explores the life of ‘Family and Community of the 1980s‘ Britain. In his project ‘Pictures from the Real World’, Moore elevates the routines of his daily life, stories of his relatives overthrowing the mundane home-based lifestyle of his childhood. Contextually, you retrieve a sense of history from his work, the muted colours which are harsh and sharp reflect the quality of the photography: initially captured at the time of documentation.

The front page of a local newspaper tells of an ongoing trade union struggle, but the reader, as you can see, has resigned to the sofa. Moore doesn’t strike as the familiar photojournalistic depictions of factory closures and striker – police confrontation out of his private lives of struggling families behind those battle lines.

Moore’s family which he depicts ceases unease about the more politically manifestations of collecting working class identity. Moore hoped to reinforce the socially stabilising cement of the traditional family structure, strong, and able to stand on his feet financially, then they could have only been perplexed by reality. This brings to question issues relating into Moore’s work. The reader asks themselves: how half hearted were the governments attempts to do much about the social revolution? And what was the scale and speed of change of this lifestyle? I believe that from Moore’s images, you understand the struggles and imperfection of living a working-class lifestyle in the 80s, never the less thought out willingly that this is the only life they’ve ever led.

David Moore’s Pictures From the Real World reminds us that the stock images that are endlessly reproduced this family and life in 1980s Britain was more often captured what was exceptional rather than commonplace about that decade. Moore’s photographs show

Here is a link to an article written by ‘The Guardian’ Entitled: “Photographer David Moore’s dingy, deteriorating Derby is the real deal”.-http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/apr/10/photographer-david-moore-real-world

“This chronicler of 80s working-class England peers behind closed doors to capture a community indelibly marked by Margaret Thatcher.”

Sean O’Hagan, the producer of this Article writes on the chronicles of Moore’s life. My most favoured quote:

“That it does stop is down to Moore’s social conscience, which is on the side of the marginalised whose lives, under Thatcher, were rapidly becoming more precarious – and have remained so ever since. You could say that Moore’s photographs record the the beginnings of a new social class recently dubbed the precariat.”

Analysis, Evaluation, Exhibition, Research